Live Poker by Zynga for the iPhone Review

Got some free time while you're sitting around? How about getting a live game of poker in with your friends on Facebook, or random strangers? This can done easily and for free with the iPhone application Live Poker from Zynga.

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Zynga's Live Poker on the iPhone

One of the most addicting games people play on their computers or with friends is poker. Whether you're using real money or just playing for fun on a variety of free websites, it seems like people always have time for a game or two. Live Poker from developer Zynga, is a free application for the iPhone that lets you play online against real users using play money.

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Game Play

The first thing you'll notice about Live Poker, is it's design, right off the bat it looks like an application that you definitely should have paid for. That's the beauty of it though, you get the joy of playing poker completely for free.

You have the option of choosing just to play now, select a table or play friends who you have added to your friends list. What's really cool about this application is that you can find friends from your Facebook account to play with you. So if you have eight or nine buddies on Facebook, then you can all get on and play each other at your own table. The connection runs over the iPhone's 3G or Wi-fi network. It is fast and smooth on either connection.

There is a place where you can check out your stats from games you've played. You can see how many hands you've played, what your best winning hand was, your biggest money amount win, as well as your current ranking. If you have full service on your 3G network then the game only takes about 10 seconds to connect. From there on there's little to no lag. You can bet, fold, raise and even chat with fellow poker players in the room. If that's not enough for you, how about the fact that you can use your hard earned fake money, to purchase drinks for yourself or other players. You can also add players you play with that you happen to like. This is why it is such a nice social atmosphere.

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Overall Review

For being a free application Live Poker really delivers. From what I saw, the majority of bad reviews on iTunes for this application was because it was not on the iPod Touch.

The game has very few bugs, hardly any that are noticeable, for that matter. It rarely crashes as well, which is something many iPhone applications have a hard time saying. The pickup and play aspect of Live Poker is what makes it fun. If you have a Facebook account then you can just log in using that, and you only sign in one time.

There is also a paid version of this game available on iTunes that goes for $9.99. The only main difference in this version and the free version is that you can get more chips just for purchasing it. It is also compatible with the iPod Touch.

Live Poker for the iPhone Touch isn't the greatest iPhone application out there, but it will fulfill those dailiy moments of boredom we all experience. With the ability to add friends, buy drinks and play a quick pickup game of poker, this really is one of the finer choices for poker games on the iPhone. The fact that it's free is enough for you to give it a try. Live Poker can be purchased on the iPhone through the iTunes application store.